The Antipodean

Come on, Freddy fans! Michael Myers never had no bubble gum named after him!

PhantomStranger

I know it was beloved by many people but Nightmare on Elm Street is the most overrated franchise in horror.

GoldenJCJ

If you want to talk about an overrated horror franchise may I introduce you to Chucky. He’s annoying as shit. Horror’s equivalent of The Noid!

A horror franchise so bad they decided to make them comedies halfway through the series.

Mike86

In my opinion only Bride of Chucky and Seed of Chucky really ramped up the comedic aspects of Chucky (more so Seed). The others are horror films with some comedy aspects. Chucky is a smart ass in the other films too, but those two were the ones where he was really off the rails.

Also in fairness the concept for the franchise is so goofy that it makes sense to not take itself very seriously.

I find it one of the most fun horror franchises, and really one of the most consistent. Of the seven films and remake I really only dislike Seed of Chucky.

Alan Smithee

I voted for Elm Street, since each movie actually tries to do something new. Loved Friday the 13th early on but it should have ended at The Final Chapter- to have any sequels at all after a "final chapter" is just shameless, and they wear thin on top of that. The original Halloween is a classic, II is a decent "what happened after that?" answer to the first one, and III is what the rest of the series should have been (different stories taking place at Halloween), the rest are crap- especially 4-6 when they didn't even bother shooting in scope 2.35 which was an essential "character" of the first ones. Donald Pleasance just gets older while constantly shouting "Michael Myers is EVIL!" but not having much luck stopping him. The comedic music score in part 5 when the stupid cops show up ruins any chance of it being taken serious as "scary".

Child's Play was another good idea that's just been run into the ground with sequels. Chucky gets blown up several times but somehow manages to get stitched back together for another movie.

GoldenJCJ

I watched the first Friday the 13th last night for the first time in a few years. It really is not a good movie. Almost every aspect of it is amateurish and without the selling point of the hockey mask wearing Jason, it really feels like a generic slasher flick.

Mike86

I don’t mind the original Friday the 13th. Obviously it’s a lot different than the sequels and what the franchise became with Jason, but it’s still fairly enjoyable. Kind of like the mystery element it has upon first viewing. Plus Betsy Palmer as Pamela Voorhees is so unassuming, but yet when that reveal happens she’s downright creepy.

I would say the first four films are when the series was really at its best. They’re all fairly solid for slasher films. The rest are all enjoyable too, but for different reasons.

Norm de Plume

Halloween I and II are both fantastic, and merciless in their manipulation. The original is the towering juggernaut of suspense, tension, and shocks that most horror fans revere, but the sequel, which captures the same feel as the first, stands as a very worthy follow-up. The rest, well, the less said...
Friday 1 was a fair low-budget slasher, but should not have become a huge hit or progenitor for a bunch of blackly cynical Reagan-era cash-ins. I think Part 2 is, while certainly not great or good by most objective standards, nominally the best of the series, with its professional production, respectable acting, and top-flight heroine. Parts 5 and 8 are the series's low, low points.
I have never gotten the appeal of Elm Street at all. It's not scary in the slightest, with Krueger as a joke (and jokester) of a villain, but I do appreciate that others see it differently.

John Galt

Friday the 13th was, by far, my favorite of the series as a kid (Jason X wasn't out yet). I loved the movies, watched them constantly, played the NES video game, and was usually Jason for Halloween (it was the easiest of the costumes to be fair). I hadn't watched them in at least ten years until this Fall where I started the series again. I'm currently at #6 and think they still hold up pretty well. They're what you expect from a cheesy horror franchise, and you get a pretty good nostalgia factor. All that said, I much prefer the Halloween series now. I don't think I've really watched any of the shitty sequels again, and I've never watched the Rob Zombie ones. I love watching 1-3 though, and think the 2 newest ones are what reboots should be. They're much easier to enjoy from a film appreciation perspective without relying on the cheese. I never really got into Nightmare or Chucky. I know I've watched them here and there, but just never got pulled into the series enough to binge them night after night.

Edit: Also add that I have been an avid outdoorsman most of my life, starting with boy scouts as a kid. So Friday the 13th, with all the campground background, was easy to relate to and watching the movies added to some of the fun of camping as a child.

Spiderbite

Halloween is the worst franchise of the three as a whole in my opinion yet it contains the best movie of all three franchises. The first movie is a 5 star classic in my opinion. Unfortunately, every film after that seems to gradually get worse. with very small decent scenes here and there. Plus, the damn mask changes drive me a little batty if I watch many of them back to back. And Rob Zombie's remake is pretty much white trailer trash poo.

A Nightmare On Elm Street is a strong series if you stick to just the "Nancy trilogy". But once you go into the others, Freddy is just a bad, burned comedian who kills people in interesting ways. But since they are so consolidated to the 80's, they are very much teen-age nostalgia comfort food for me and I don't mind them. And count me as one of the few that actually thinks the remake was passable. Not great but watchable.

But my vote for favorite would go to the Friday The 13th series. Probably because I have watched them more than any and enjoy them the most. Friday the 13th Part 2, if I remember correctly, was my first true horror film that I saw as a kid. The series doesn't take a ton of chances. Dumb kids screw, make bad decisions, get killed, rinse and repeat. And for some reason, I never get tired of it. I love the first two and think all of them have some merit...yes...even Jason X. Jason in space is hilarious and entertaining and if you don't get it, I can't explain it. This series also has the best remake of the three and I never have understood the hate for it. It is similar but different enough to be new and entertaining but still fit with the series.

But honestly, all three have their good and bad points and I would never chastise anyone for picking one over the other. Now if you wanted to vote the Child's Play or Hellraiser series...that might be a different story...

Josh-da-man

Friday the 13th took a while to find its footing. Jason didn't even get his trademark hockey mask until the third installment.

Really, it's kind of an odd beast. The first movie was sort of a Hitchcocky Gialloy thing where Jason wasn't even the killer, and might not have even been in the movie (I always took the final scene to be a dream).

The second established Jason as the antagonist, albeit with a pillowcase over his head. Three and four is where the classic formula really took hold. Five was kind of a mess with the copycast killer thing. By six they just kind of said "Fuck it," and started using zombie Jason. Then Seven was Jason vs. notCarrie. Eight was Jason Takes Manhattan because, why not? Then it changed hands to New Line, which didn't seem to really give a fuck.

Halloween is actually pretty good up to the fifth installment (which is kind of shit), but it really seemed to hit rock bottom when Dimension picked it up.

NOES is probably the most consistent and focused throughout its run, even though we see diminishing returns in the later films and the final installment goes meta, which actually works in the context of the way the franchise works.

IBJoel

Voted for Halloween, as I feel it's the only one that has at least 3 good/solid movies: the original, Season of the Witch, the newest one, and at least 1-2 watchable ones (Halloween II 1981 [which I actually love], H20).

• I've got to rank them 1, 2, 2018, 3, H20, 4, 6, Zombie 1, Resurrection, 5. Haven't seen Zombie 2, but I know it's very divisive.
• F13 is 4, 3, 6, 1, 2, 2009 remake, FvJ, 8, 7, 5, 9.
• Elm Street for me is 1, 2, 3, 4, FvJ, 5, 2010 remake, 6. Haven't seen New Nightmare.

I think Elm Street has the 2nd best film, but I prefer the camp slasher vibe of F13 more overall.

What I think is actually the best "slasher" franchise is Final Destination, which gives me all the stupid, creative kills I want from this stuff.

Spiderbite

Here is a timely, interesting roundtable that asks this very same question:

https://ultimateclassicrock.com/fred...letter_4572276

stvn1974

The original Halloween is the best film out of the three series, Freddy is the best character but Friday The 13th has the best films as a whole. Friday got my vote.

Bluelitespecial

I voted for Friday the 13th as it has the most movies in the series that I enjoy.

Pizza

The one with the scary guy in it.

Gunde

I like all 3. The first Freddy flick is one of my favorites, and I appreciate Halloween for the groundbreaking movie it was. But the Friday series is the one I've had the most fun with and I can find something to appreciate in all the movies. That's not the case for the other two franchises.

mndtrp

Nightmare gets my vote, but as time goes on, Friday creeps up more and more. I've never really liked Halloween much, especially after the second film.

tonyc3742

• Favorite movie series of the three - Friday the 13th. Just the unstoppable nature of Jason and the creative deaths. I even liked Manhattan and X. Plus, his motive was the best.
• Favorite baddie - Freddy. He's the coolest (although his motivation is horrible, he should not be a likeable character).
• Best music - Halloween of course. Michael Meyers has a bit of the unstoppable force as well, and I actually liked Season of the Witch, but his motive was either nonexistent or just stupid. I liked Halloween (orig), Halloween 2, Season of the Witch, and the recent one. The others were filler and I don't need to watch them again.